Feeding a Harlequin Shrimp

[taichimaster]

I just bought a Harlequin and was wondering if it is safe to just throw a chocolate chip starfish in the display tank. I noticed it crawling everywhere and was worried the starfish would kill my corals. should I just keep the starfish in the sump and break a piece off every few weeks or so????

 

[PCFishman]

Harlequin

I just bought a Harlequin and was wondering if it is safe to just throw a chocolate chip starfish in the display tank. I noticed it crawling everywhere and was worried the starfish would kill my corals. should I just keep the starfish in the sump and break a piece off every few weeks or so????

that was the best way to do it, although it is very cruel to starfish, which is why I ended up selling mine. They have a voracious appetite and if you leave them with a whole star fish it will be gone in a week.

 

[saltybell]

I put a whole starfish in my reef and the shrimp will make sure it doesn't travel too far (if you know what I mean). You can do it either way but the cut up method is not worth the effort. Just throw the whole thing in and the shrimp will do the rest.

 

[luisse25]

i met a guy who has harlequins and ask him how he feeds them..he showed me a chocolate
chip starfish in his sump and some of the legs are missing but the starfish is alive(and said he have the starfish for a while)..he said he just cut a piece off the legs and said it will come back or regenerate..he said if you put the starfish in the tank the harlequin will go after it and they go kill it right away and feast on it in just days so you'll end up buying and buying which will cost a lot of money..i thought what hes doin is smart..but i felt bad for the starfish..

 

[taichimaster]

thanks,
I actually just got the shrimp and maybe he is to timid to go after it right away. the starfish was crawling all over the place so i decided to put it in the sump. we will see what happens i guess. Haven't seen the shrimp yet since i put it in the tank but he is probably very shy now. I did noticed the leg i put in the tank dissapeared over night.

 

[csababubbles]

luisse25,

i have never seen the shrimp kill the starfish right away. in fact, just the opposite happens. they flip them and keep them alive as long as possible while eating the arms first and saving the center disc till last.

 

[Bored4ever86]

When I had my harliquins (they got killed by the damn hermits....) I just cut off a leg from the starfish and threw the rest in the freezer. I know, sound inhumane... but it works. This way your not having to remove bits of starfish that no one seems to want/wasting starfish. I managed to keep my 2 down to about a leg every few days to a week hence costs weren't too high. I have heard of harliquins doing alright on some of our local pacific starfish so you could always just go down to the docks at lowtide and find a starfish, chop its leg off and toss it back in. Try not to get any of the center and the starfish will regrow the leg and your harliquins will be happy (especially if the leg is pretty good size).

Something my dad told me about is when he left the NOAA ship that he hung out in Hood Canal with some of our extended family. They had a small scallop farm and would have infestations of starfish so to get rid of them they went out diving and took a knife to the starfish chopping them all up. Well little did they know that as long as the starfish have some of the center they can regenerate so a while after they had hundreds of "small" starfish infesting their farm.

So as I see it, it may be a little barbaric to chop off its leg and just throw it back, but they will certainly recover and come back in full force.

 

[Reefdiver72]

i would store it in the sump if the harliquin doesnt kill it they do eat corals not a risk i would take

 

[grahamsn]

I am wanting to get a harliquin and was wondering do they eat the little white star fish( don't remember their names) that seem to multiply fast in tanks. If so how fast would they wipe them out?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

I am wanting to get a Harlequin and was wondering do they eat the little white star fish( don't remember their names) that seem to multiply fast in tanks. If so how fast would they wipe them out?

Hey pal, yes when they get hungry, they go for the asterina stars.
Start with one shrimp, should do fine. With more shrimp, becomes a problem keeping them fed